In his column in The Wall Street Journal, Rove said the Republican presidential candidate is winning at every level of the numbers game, “from polling data to early voting.”

“Sometime after the cock crows on the morning of Nov. 7, Mitt Romney will be declared America’s 45th president,” Rove wrote on Wednesday night. “Let’s call it 51%-48%, with Mr. Romney carrying at least 279 Electoral College votes, probably more.”

He argued that Romney has a “small but persistent polling edge,” leading in 19 of the 31 national surveys released in the last week, he said, and the GOP candidate “was at or above 50 percent in 10 polls, Obama in none.” President Barack Obama was ahead in seven of the polls, Rove said, and five were tied.

The former senior aide to President George W. Bush also cited data from Gallup that, he said, indicated Republicans might have a slight edge on voter turnout, and that so far, the GOP was also winning early voting.

“Furthermore, in battleground states, the edge in early and absentee vote turnout that propelled Democrats to victory in 2008 has clearly been eroded, cut in half according to a Republican National Committee summary,” Rove said. “But doesn’t it all come down to the all-important Buckeye State? Here, too, the early voting news isn’t encouraging for the president.”